Navigation

Article Search

Attorney Search

Search Articles

Find Attorneys

Don't Just Hope for an Inheritance; Get It in Writing

March 28th, 2014

A recent case demonstrates the importance of getting any agreements about inheritance in writing. The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled that rendering services to someone in the hope or expectation that it will result in payment from an estate is not sufficient to entitle an individual to a portion of the estate. Cheney v. Flood (84 Mass. App. Ct. 1134, Feb. 7, 2014)

Suzanne M. Cheney performed many services for her stepfather, Anthony R. Turco, expecting to receive a share of his estate. However, to her great disappointment, he left her nothing. Ms. Cheney then sued James F. Flood, Jr., both individually as her stepfather’s lawyer and as administrator of her stepfather’s estate, alleging legal malpractice and that she was entitled to recovery from the estate for the reasonable value of the services she and her family performed for Mr. Turco during the last years of his life.

Margaret A. O'Reilly, PC

Margaret A. O’Reilly is an estate planning and elder law attorney with over thirty-five years of legal experience. Attorney O’Reilly graduated from Duke University with a degree in psychology, and received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. For over 15 y...

Tell us about your legal issue and we will put you in touch with Margaret O'Reilly.

I understand that by contacting a lawyer or a law firm through ElderLawAnswers, I will not create an attorney-client relationship and the message will not necessarily be treated as privileged or confidential.

Needham Mitnick & Pollack, PLC

Susan Pollack served as Chairperson of the Falls Church Senior Citizens Commission from 1997 to 2011 and was on the Executive Board of the Falls Church Education Foundation. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Alzheimer’s Association of the National Capital Area and is a member of the Arlington B...

Tell us about your legal issue and we will put you in touch with Susan Pollack.

I understand that by contacting a lawyer or a law firm through ElderLawAnswers, I will not create an attorney-client relationship and the message will not necessarily be treated as privileged or confidential.

Needham Mitnick & Pollack, PLC

Judith Mtinick is well known for acting as a guardian, conservator, trustee or agent on behalf of clients or by court appointment. This experience gives her a wide perspective and extensive practical knowledge that she uses when advising clients in drafting their planning documents. Her experience, as a court appointed...

Tell us about your legal issue and we will put you in touch with Judith Mitnick.

I understand that by contacting a lawyer or a law firm through ElderLawAnswers, I will not create an attorney-client relationship and the message will not necessarily be treated as privileged or confidential.

The judge dismissed the legal malpractice claim because Ms. Cheney and Attorney Flood had no attorney-client relationship. The judge then dismissed the claim that there had been an implied promise of payment for services, called quantum meruit under the law, because Ms. Cheney failed to allege that she performed services for Mr. Turco with the expectation that she would be paid for them.

Ms. Cheney appealed the decision regarding the quantum meruit claim, arguing that while there was no express agreement between her and Mr. Turco that she would provide services to him in exchange for being listed in his will as beneficiary, she had always hoped that he would pay her through his estate. Unfortunately for Ms. Cheney, the court found that this gave her no legal basis for payment without an underlying contract or agreement between the parties. The court ruled that Ms. Cheney’s hope or expectation, even though well founded, is not equivalent to entitling her to reasonable value of services under the legal concept of quantum meruit.

It seems that Ms. Cheney’s mistake was relying on a hope or expectation of receiving an inheritance under her stepfather’s estate and neither discussing it with him nor documenting a contract or agreement between the two.